[mrspeakers]

We have made so much progress on the wait list that I am going to open upgrades up next week.  We've emailed everyone who was on the list and have about 10 units we're waiting to receive to upgrade, so it should be no problem to declare "open season" on upgrades.  I'll let you know when the link is live.  
 
For anyone who thought they were on the list and didn't get a note, you might check your spam folder and/or inbox, the subject is "Your turn for a Mad Dog to Alpha Dog upgrade."

 

[EraserXIV]

Very interesting, I definitely entered my email in to the upgrade form on the website (I did it memorial day weekend). I was afraid it would be filtered to my spam folder so I had been keeping an eye on that too and haven't seen anything

 

[swspiers]

My red Alpha Dogs finally arrived today, and man they sound so great. The Schiit Audio Lyr 2 powers them effortlessly. The Zepplin and Zappa, I have played so far have sounded fantastic. I will talk more after I have listened to some others types of music. Hope everyone has a good evening.

+1 on the Zappa, Alpha Dogs pairing.  In fact, I'm gonna stop writing and go listen to some 'Guitar'

 

[YtseJamer]

Is there any way to tighten up the ear adjustment. The right cup keeps sliding down on me.

[VIDEO]http://youtu.be/JHtaO5zRAAE[/VIDEO]

 

[tehsprayer]

http://youtu.be/JHtaO5zRAAE

Sorry for the confusion not the clamp force but the metal pieces just move the cups up and down to adjust to your head. The right one moves with very little pressure and is annoying.

 

[RainHeaven]

  Sorry for the confusion not the clamp force but the metal pieces just move the cups up and down to adjust to your head. The right one moves with very little pressure and is annoying.

I think you have to tighten the screw.

 

[tehsprayer]

  I think you have to tighten the screw.

That did it, thank you very much!

 

[mrspeakers]

Sometimes the leather compresses a bit and tightening the screw restores the needed friction.

 

[4nradio]

I received my Alpha Dogs yesterday.
 
The package presentation, the fit & finish, and especially the sound is wonderful... my ears definitely prefer them over the HD800.
 
I'd say that these Dogs are putting a real scare into other brands on the market!
 

 

[Skyyyeman]

Me too -- I much prefer the AD over the HD800.  To me, the HD800, while incredible with classical and some jazz, was just not satisfying with most other genres, including most jazz, rock, dance, reggae, world etc. etc.  The HD800, IMO, had too much treble energy, not enough bass energy, and had a certain "thinness" overall.  When I had switched cables on the HD800 to Moon Audio Blue Dragon, which produced a good improvement, it was still not enough to make me love the HD800.
 
The AD, by contrast, is just so satisfying and sounds so "right" on all genres.  While an open headphone might produce some additional air and separation on classical music, the AD is still fine with classical and great on everything else too.
 
BTW, I also now use a Moon Audio Blue Dragon cable with the Alpha Dog and it has also produced a real nice improvement -- more of everything, detail, transparency, bass, dynamics -- it was like upgrading a major component like an amp.  So, if you think the AD is great with the stock cable (which is still a very good and well made cable, using well-regarded Canare wire), wait 'till you try it with something like the Moon cable.  
 
And there must be demand as the AD becomes more ubiquitous since Moon Audio stocks the Alpha Dog (and Mad Dog) connectors.

 

[tehsprayer]

  Me too -- I much prefer the AD over the HD800.  To me, the HD800, while incredible with classical and some jazz, was just not satisfying with most other genres, including most jazz, rock, dance, reggae, world etc. etc.  The HD800, IMO, had too much treble energy, not enough bass energy, and had a certain "thinness" overall.  When I had switched cables on the HD800 to Moon Audio Blue Dragon, which produced a good improvement, it was still not enough to make me love the HD800.
 
The AD, by contrast, is just so satisfying and sounds so "right" on all genres.  While an open headphone might produce some additional air and separation on classical music, the AD is still fine with classical and great on everything else too.
 
BTW, I also now use a Moon Audio Blue Dragon cable with the Alpha Dog and it has also produced a real nice improvement -- more of everything, detail, transparency, bass, dynamics -- it was like upgrading a major component like an amp.  So, if you think the AD is great with the stock cable (which is still a very good and well made cable, using well-regarded Canare wire), wait 'till you try it with something like the Moon cable.  
 
And there must be demand as the AD becomes more ubiquitous since Moon Audio stocks the Alpha Dog (and Mad Dog) connectors.

I feel like cables have a lot of diminishing returns. Spending several hundreds of dollars that can be spent elsewhere and I believe cables are good for lightweight such as travelling and aesthetics. Does it actually make a sound improvement over the original stock canare?
 

Here is the quad star canare cable which I THINK is used for the stock cable and it is neutral for frequencies the human ear can hear. What am I missing?

 

[Skyyyeman]

Sorry, no intention to start a general discussion about cables on the Alpha Dog thread.  I was just giving my experience with the Alpha Dog specifically, which is that the cable upgrade I mentioned, in terms of sound quality improvement, was not subtle IMO and could be considered equivalent to a component upgrade like an amp. 
 
If anyone wants to get into a general discussion about cables, there is the Sound Science thread or other threads on this site.

 

[koolas]

I just made discovery that Behringer FBQ3102 is also a great headphone amp for Alpha Dogs. What you get from it is plenty of raw power, and in addition you can equalize the sound the way that fits your likes. You can feed this thing with single ended or balanced input, and you get an extra bonus, the output channel for subwoofer (so that you could not only hear the sound, but also feel it). Given that this whole thing costs around 100EUR it is a lot of value. The only drawback is that it has either 2 x 3pin XLR, or 2 x big TS jacks, and I didn't see such cable in Dan's repo I wonder if guys in Behringer have any idea what they sell

 

[4nradio]

  Me too -- I much prefer the AD over the HD800.  To me, the HD800, while incredible with classical and some jazz, was just not satisfying with most other genres, including most jazz, rock, dance, reggae, world etc. etc.  The HD800, IMO, had too much treble energy, not enough bass energy, and had a certain "thinness" overall.  When I had switched cables on the HD800 to Moon Audio Blue Dragon, which produced a good improvement, it was still not enough to make me love the HD800.
 
The AD, by contrast, is just so satisfying and sounds so "right" on all genres.  While an open headphone might produce some additional air and separation on classical music, the AD is still fine with classical and great on everything else too.
 
BTW, I also now use a Moon Audio Blue Dragon cable with the Alpha Dog and it has also produced a real nice improvement -- more of everything, detail, transparency, bass, dynamics -- it was like upgrading a major component like an amp.  So, if you think the AD is great with the stock cable (which is still a very good and well made cable, using well-regarded Canare wire), wait 'till you try it with something like the Moon cable.  
 
And there must be demand as the AD becomes more ubiquitous since Moon Audio stocks the Alpha Dog (and Mad Dog) connectors.

 
Your HD800 impressions mirror mine exactly... a certain "thinness" sums it up perfectly. I mostly enjoy classic rock, electronic blues, and world music, and I don't feel that the HD800 shines with those genres.
 
I was already thinking ahead to another DIY Blue Dragon headphones cable build-up, but for the Alpha Dogs. At $60 for five feet of the Blue Dragon bulk wire it makes for a high quality cable at a good price. Of course, you need to figure in the cost of connectors, but if you build the cable yourself instead of buying a ready-made one, it's very cost effective. I've built Blue Dragon cables for Denon D2000 and Audeze LCD-2 Rev2 headphones previously and really liked the results. 

 

[tehsprayer]

   
Your HD800 impressions mirror mine exactly... a certain "thinness" sums it up perfectly. I mostly enjoy classic rock, electronic blues, and world music, and I don't feel that the HD800 shines with those genres.
 
I was already thinking ahead to another DIY Blue Dragon headphones cable build-up, but for the Alpha Dogs. At $60 for five feet of the Blue Dragon bulk wire it makes for a high quality cable at a good price. Of course, you need to figure in the cost of connectors, but if you build the cable yourself instead of buying a ready-made one, it's very cost effective. I've built Blue Dragon cables for Denon D2000 and Audeze LCD-2 Rev2 headphones previously and really liked the results. 

Are there any tutorials on making headphone cables? I have absolutely no knowledge but for only $60 for blue dragon is worth a shot even for the experiment and subtle sound improvement.